


Angel

by TailoftheDevil



Category: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion | Evangelion: New Theatrical Edition
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Harems, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2017-04-02
Packaged: 2018-10-14 05:05:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10529529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TailoftheDevil/pseuds/TailoftheDevil
Summary: Asuka and Shinji have been together as friends since childhood, and she'd always sort-of assumed they would be together forever. But the mysterious Rei Ayanami transfers into their school, and suddenly Asuka's peaceful adventure in love is ruined! Will she be able to make Shinji hers? Or will she lose to that red-eyed temptress?





	1. I live with Two Beautiful Angels!

The gentle rays of the morning sun peeked through the small gap in the curtain, reflecting the slowly falling dust floating lazily to the floor. The light managed to reach the face of a teenage boy who was fast asleep. A peaceful expression was etched on his face as he continued to enjoy a pleasant dream.

Mere inches away from him, a girl was breathing heavily, a furious, bright red blush on her face. She had light brown hair that she normally kept tied in twintails, but having woken up not that long ago, it lay tousled as she leaned over the sleeping boy, wrestling with her emotions. Her soft blue eyes looked over his face as loose strands of her hair fell over his nose and cheek.

She was debating whether or not to wake him normally, as was her intention when she first walked into this room, or to wake him with a raunchy morning kiss. Compounding the problem was the fact that she had only recently realised, within the last week or so, that she was madly in love with this boy. The soul with the name Shinji Ikari had been her childhood friend since forever, but her feelings had been evolving, growing and growing to the point where she could no longer deny that the spell had been cast.

She leaned in closer, close enough that she could feel his gentle breathing tickling the tip of her nose. Her mind was pretty much made up. Edging closer and closer to the prize, she began to close her eyes as she readied herself. This was going to be her first kiss.

Nanometres away from Shinji's lips, she was seconds away from success when a grouchy voice echoed from the other room.

"Asuka! How long does it take to wake a teenage boy? You're both gonna be late for school!"

Their guardian, Misato Katsuragi, could be heard swigging a morning beer as she busied herself getting ready. Asuka could hear footsteps moving closer to the door, causing her to panic.

"Just give me a second Misato!" Sighing with regret, she began to shake her unrequited love's shoulder until groaning could be heard.

"Just another couple minutes, please..."

"No can do Baka. We gotta get breakfast going. Hell, even Misato's awake before you today." Standing up, she made for the door. One of Shinji's eyelids cracked open, catching a glimpse of Asuka wearing a simple yellow vest top and short shorts that left very little to the imagination. As she walked out of his room, he allowed himself a small grin. He had been awake the whole time since Asuka first entered the room, keeping it secret that he was already conscious. He was aware that Asuka had been doing strange things like this for a while, but he wasn't yet quite sure how to deal with it. The girl baffled his mind. Was she in heat? He was sure if he mentioned the idea, he'd meet the receiving end of some sharp object and be a lot worse off for it. Was she in love? With him?

Making a sound somewhere between a snort and a chuckle, Shinji got out of bed and began to pull on his regular school clothes. He was about as attractive as a mouse, and had the charisma of a fart, there was no way in hell she was attracted to him.

But the fact was, mere moments ago, the beautiful half-European bombshell of a girl he had lived with for a considerably long time now had tried to kiss him. He had never been this confused in his entire life.

As he walked out of the room, he yawned again, already exhausted from having to think so hard this early in the morning.

"What do people want for breakfast?"

In response to his question directed to the household at large, Asuka ran out of the kitchen, now wearing her regular school uniform. Forcing a slice of toast into his mouth, she ran into her room whilst yelling at him.

"There's no time! We've overslept, we gotta get to school, asap!"

"Wait, what about breakfast?!" A horrified Misato sounded out her fears from her bedroom. If there was no time to make something for her, she would have to make herself something. An apocalyptic scenario if there ever was one.

"Don't you start your new job today? Aren't you late?" Asuka's muffled voice echoed from her bedroom. Several seconds of silence echoed throughout the house before...

"OH SHIT, I'M LATE!"

Shinji grinned as he wandered into his bedroom to grab his bag. First day back at school for the new semester and things were going fabulously. As he made his way to the door, the two female cohabitants barrelled out their respective bedrooms, Asuka grabbing his arm on the way out of the house, half-eaten toast hanging on for dear life as it bounced wildly from the corner of her mouth.

"Have a good day guys, watch the road, don't get hit by cars or anything." Misato yelled from her own vehicle's window as she pumped the ignition. Seconds later, she was racing down the road, speed limits be damned in their entirety.

"The only car we're going to have to worry about on the roads is that damned Alpine she drives." Asuka breathed as they both ran towards the station. After a lengthy ten minute jog to the station, they touched through the station gates with their cards and just barely made the train as the doors began to close.

"That... was... too close..." Asuka panted as she caught her breath. Shinji nodded in agreement, eyes fixed to the floor as his lungs stopped trying to kill him. He slowly stood up, catching his balance, when his first trial of the morning began by fire.

His beautiful roommate was sweating from all the running they'd just finished in the sweltering Japanese summer heat, causing her white shirt to look a little see-through in certain areas. And amongst that, it seems like they had been in far too much of a hurry for her to remember to wear a bra...

He felt his face ignite as a hot, red flush crawled up his face. There was a fair amount of people crowded onto this train, and one look at the wrong angle, and Asuka might begin to be considered an exhibitionist.

"Asuka..." He whispered frantically. "Come here!"

He received a look of confused anger for his trouble, but he didn't really care about her temper at the moment. Motioning with his hand, Asuka eventually came over to his side. He prayed to every god that would listen to protect him from the consequences of his forthcoming actions, and quickly wrapped his arms around the German girl. Her face lit up crimson as she began to try and push herself away, she wasn't anywhere near mentally prepared for Shinji's sudden forwardness.

"What the hell are you doing, idiot Shinji!?"

"You appear to have a slight wardrobe malfunction, and I'm protecting you from the lecherous idiots that share our train."

"I count you as one of those idiots as well, asshole! The hell are you talking about, 'wardrobe malfunction'?" Asuka looked down at her dress, before quickly realising Shinji had made the right, if unexpected move.

"You have got to be joking..."

"See?" Shinji grinned. "For my actions in the line of duty, I deserve immunity from concussion after this is all over."

"You'll be lucky not to get my foot up your ass as soon as we get off this damn train." Asuka mumbled as she held onto Shinji's shirt. "Don't you dare move until then. I hope to god Hikari's got a spare bra I can steal..."

"Will that even fit?"

"What in the hell are you trying to say Ikari!? Hikari and me are roughly the same size..."

"Fantastic, I now know roughly the bra size of our class president." Shinji grinned as he thought of informing Toji when he survived this particular hell.

"Why do you know my bra size!?" Asuka hissed, her face could boil water instantly. "Asshole! Pervert!" She began beating his chest angrily.

"Hey, who does all of the washing in our house?"

"Fair point, but that doesn't mean you have to memorise this stuff!"

"To be fair, I wash all of the clothes so often, I could recite Misato and your sizes from memory easily. Let me think, I'm sure you're something like a B-cup, and your..." A firm grasp on his ear made for an abrupt punctuation.

"Try telling the whole damn train Shinji, see what happens." The man standing behind Asuka shifted uncomfortably. The pain increased on Shinji's ear, and only stopped after a sharp yelp of pain escaped his lips.

"I'm sorry!" He half-meant it too. Back in the day, he had been too nervous to even talk to Asuka. Being able to tease her like his was something out of a dream, and he wanted to relish every second of it. Rolling her eyes, Asuka buried her head into his chest, partly to escape their confounding situation, but partly as a way to enjoy Shinji's scent under pretense.

"Stupid idiot..." She mumbled to herself.

What felt like an entirely too-short eternity to them both later, they arrived at their stop, after which they raced to their classroom, just making it in the nick of time. After a hasty conversation with the class president, Asuka and Hikari quickly dashed for the girls locker room, returning with a satisfied smile on both girls faces. Asuka's smile quickly turned to irritation after spotting Shinji's knowing grin and sat down on her chair, her mood in a strange place between sour and bashful after the events of the morning replayed in her head. Caught up in her bubbly daydream, she didn't even notice as their usual, old and frail homeroom teacher wandered in.

"Good morning class. I have an announcement. I may have mentioned to everyone last week how this class would be getting a new homeroom teacher soon, and I am pleased to announced she has arrived, albeit five minutes late for her first day." The class giggled in response, with Shinji agreeing with the crowd. Asuka, on the other hand, had a sudden sinking feeling that she couldn't quite explain.

"Without further ado, if you would please, Miss..."

"Katsuragi." A familiar voice echoed from the front of the class as an equally similar head of purple hair walked pridefully into their classroom. Their guardian, looking slightly tousled after what must have been plenty of near-death experiences with other vehicles, was standing at the front of the class, grinning directly at her two roommates.

"Good morning class, I'm sorry for the delay. As mentioned before, my name is Misato Katsuragi, and starting today, I'm going to be your new homeroom teacher! I hope we can all get along and have an awesome year together!" No sooner had she stopped talking then all the boys in the class erupted into cheers. The cheers stopped quickly however, when two indignantly loud voices cut through all of the noise and screamed as loud as they could.

"YOU COULD'VE GIVEN US A LIFT EARLIER!"


	2. Gods of Creation

"Honey, I'm serious!"

"Gendo, I think you're finally starting to crack..."

"Yui, I'm not losing it. I have a daughter, her name is Hitagi Senjougahara!"

"No dear, you have a son. His name is Shinji Ikari. Unless you've been hiding something from me for all these years. But thankfully I have the past experience to know that you're dreams go out of control at the touch of a hat."

"...and she has a boyfriend called Koyomi Araragi, who saved her from her disease of weightlessness caught from the crabs."

"For the love of god..."

The two scientists sat over the diagram readouts, mumbling to each other over cups of strong coffee. Both looked completely exhausted, and Gendo's eyes danced around the room, his lack of sleep for over seventy-two hours beginning to spark insanity in his mind, whilst his wife looked on disgruntled. She was used to her husband being a little crazy sometimes, but the lack of sleep to her was testing her patience. Plus, the potential miracle of an experiment they were waiting to test was driving her mad. Having to wait to see the unbelievable that you knew was coming was testing her normally gentle and patient personality.

"...and she had beautiful, long purple hair."

"Gendo! We've got only a few hours before we have to let the kids know the experiments that will change their lives forever. And we sure as hell can't trust Kyoko to do it! Get your head out of your ass and focus!"

"...she was a bit of a bitch though. All tsundere, killed all the cute." With her blood vessels reaching a critical breaking point, Yui Ikari cracked her husband around the head with a heavy folder.

"You're going to be the death of me one of these days..." Yui mumbled as she massaged her aching head.

* * *

With the shock of their new homeroom teacher finally beginning to recede, Asuka hung her head behind her chair, staring at the ceiling. She didn't think she could handle more surprises today. She wanted Shinji's delicious home-cooked bento in her stomach, but lunch was still hours away. Stomach grumbling, she turned to face Shinji, who happened to sit next to her, flashing him a look of practiced annoyance. His response was a confused expression and a shrug, which wasn't the kind of attention she had been looking for.

Tearing out a scrap of paper from her notepad, she quickly began writing a message.

_"I'm bored!"_

Having received it, Shinji quickly read the note and glanced at her, flashing a smile that agreed with her.

 _"Me too. I'm not paying attention at all. You got any ideas to kill the time?"_ Asuka thought about the response for a little while, until a small grin crept into her expression.

_"Let's play a game!"_

_"What kind of game?"_

_"20 questions, gone wild!"_ Shinji's eyes widened to impossible sizes as he read the response. It was all she could do to not laugh out loud. After she'd received the affirmative from Shinji, she began their little game.

_"Out of all the girls in the class, who's the cutest?"_

_"That's not a fair question..."_

_"Answer the damn question, stupid Shinji!"_

_"A certain fiery fräulein I know..."_ He had the audacity to look sheepish, but his comment made her happy. At least he had noticed she was an attractive organism of the female species. Pencil in his mouth, Shinji finally came up with a question that surprised her.

 _"Is there anyone that you like?"_ Her heartbeat flared as she struggled to find an immediate answer. She wasn't mentally ready to tell him that she liked him, but one wrong move and she could hint to Shinji that it wasn't him she liked, dashing her hopes of a future relationship entirely.

 _"If you mean like as in people I can bear with most on a daily basis, I'd have to choose you I guess."_ After sneaking him the note, she hid her face away from him, afraid she'd let slip her innermost thoughts. She heard a surprised gasp of air coming from his direction, before hearing the pencil scratching on the paper again.

_"You write incredibly frustrating answers, I have no idea what that means in the female language."_

She came close to whacking him across the head with her textbook, but settled with glaring at him as though looks could cause people to spontaneously combust.

_"Read too much into it and I'll have you for lunch instead of the damn bento!"_

As soon as she handed it over, she regretted writing the response. She meant it as something angry, but replaying the words in her head and it began to sound... flirty? Her fears were confirmed when Shinji covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. Whimpering in exasperation, she buried her head in her arms on her desk. The rest of the day passed by in a slow, painful, agonizing fashion.

* * *

"This is so disappointing."

"Gendo, focus!"

"But, but...!" Gendo Ikari was looking at his son, a mixture of disappointment and fear written over his face. "That's not my precious Hitagi!"

"...what?" Shinji mumbled, incredibly confused at his incomprehensible father's words.

"Hitagi! My daughter!"

_***WHACK*** _

The elder Ikari male crumpled to the ground, with Yui Ikari standing over him, a look of pure rage covering her face.

"That's enough! Sleep there for a few minutes, I can do the introduction by myself at least." Both Asuka and Shinji looked suitably horrified. Shinji's mother rarely ever displayed anger, so whenever her rage did display itself, it was terrifying.

"We've brought you here today to explain to you the nature of our experiments. Neither of us have slept for over three days, so your father is going insane and I'm getting a little... irritated." Yui walked over to a nearby laptop connected to the ceiling-mounted projector, flicking everything on. The room dimmed as one of the walls parallel to the two teenagers lit-up with an image. From what they could tell, they were looking at a simple, white-walled room with nothing inside. There didn't seem to be anything interesting about the room, and Shinji looked at his mother fearfully.

"...maybe you've both been in here a little too long, mother."

A fierce look of boiling anger was his response, causing Shinji to whimper like a rabbit, cowering behind Asuka. The German girl had given him enough scary looks that he thought he was ready for anything, but even Asuka herself was shaking in fear.

"Admittedly, it doesn't look like much, but that room is the single, most advanced example of virtual reality engineering in the world. What you're looking at is the room in its default state. I need the both of you to go into that room, and... test its capabilities." After a flick of a switch, a small door materialized underneath the projected image.

"Go." At her encouragement, Asuka and Shinji walked towards the door and pushed it open. The exact same room as they had seen on the projection greeted them.

 _"Stand in the middle."_ Yui's voice could now be heard over a communications system, the metallic voice reverberating around the room. As they were told, they stood in the middle of the room, looking at each other with confused faces.

As she was typing furiously into the computer, Gendo began to awaken, getting to his feet as held his aching head. Yui noticed the sound of her husband returning to consciousness and swiftly pointed to the projection of the room, now with the two teenagers inside.

"It's your cue."

Gendo nodded as he looked towards the projection. Inside the now sealed room, his face appeared before the two children as a small, floating window.

_"You are both now inside a virtual reality. However, your bodies are still physical, meaning you will be able to touch anything around you as though it existed in real life."_

"We can... touch virtual objects? That's breaking a few laws of physics, isn't it?" Asuka said in disbelief towards the floating image of Shinji's father. The face smiled mischievously back at her.

_"Would you like an example? Shinji, imagine a small animal, like a cat on the floor in front of you."_

With an exasperated expression directed towards Asuka, Shinji began to look at the floor, imagining a jet-black cat. Within seconds, a physical cat appeared before them, looking up at them, slightly confused as to why it was there.

"You have got to be joking...!" Asuka slowly breathed as she watched the cat walk towards her, and physically rub its head on her leg. "How...!? I can feel it!"

 _"It's a confirmed success!"_ An incredibly overexcited sounding Yui Ikari shrieked from the communications channel. _"Stability at eighty-seven percent, no problems with the children's physical composition. Phase two, go!"_ She yelled the final words at Gendo, who clapped his hands with excitement.

_"Next, Asuka, we need you to imagine an environment. Anything will do, but try not to overcomplicate it. Somewhere you would be familiar with would be ideal."_

Her look of shock widened as Asuka looked back at Shinji, the black cat now in her arms as it purred contentedly. She closed her eyes, and a few seconds later, the classroom that they had been studying in only hours beforehand materialized around them. The detail was immaculate, and apart from the lack of other students, everything was a perfect replication of the room at their school.

 _"Phase Two, success! Anomalies holding steady at five percent, possibly due to hosts imagination processes. Phase three!"_ Yui was pounding the keyboard so fast, she was beginning to worry about her fingers breaking from the pressure.

 _"This time, Shinji, we need you to imagine a location from a long time ago, something you won't remember perfectly."_ His father directed him, and Shinji nodded, beginning to concentrate on a forest that his family had once taken him to when he was six-years old.

Slowly this time, the forest in his mind began to appear around him. But in certain areas, there were static patches.

_"Success! Anomalies at sixty percent, host's health remains stable!"_

_"I remember this forest."_ His father looked around the room through his window. Yui turned to him and pointed at the entrance to the room.

"Phase four, get in there!" Gendo nodded and hurried to the door, entering and standing next to the two utterly confused children. Closing his eyes, he focused on the same memory that Shinji had summoned.

The static patches around them from Shinji's memories began to fuzz and stabilize into the remaining sections of forest that had been missing before. Before long, the complete forest surrounding the three open-mouthed people.

 _"Memory Merge, success!"_ Yui was beside herself as she came close to a mental breakdown from excitement. _"Phase four is a success!"_

Gendo nodded, grinning from ear-to-ear, before turning around and looking at the electrified Shinji and Asuka. Pointing towards the cat, his grin seemed to grow even wider.

"Take it outside of the room."

For everything that had happened so far, the next thing that would await them had seemed to shock them a hundred times more. But when Asuka nervously opened the door to the unbelievable room, and stepped outside holding the imagined cat, which didn't disappear as she exited and shut the door behind her, the realization of the experiments that had happened today would change everything as they knew it suddenly began to dawn on them.

They had created life, from the imagination of a teenage boy, that persisted and survived from outside its virtual incubator. The cat meowed happily at Asuka, who's eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

As of right now, Asuka Langley Soryu and the Ikari family were essentially gods of creation.

**_They were gods._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11762238/2/Angel


	3. In Holy Matrimony

Asuka was bouncing her leg up and down under her desk as she leaned her face on her hand, trying to look bored. Together with Shinji, they had gone to school the next day after they had become literal gods. So trying to keep a disinterested look was proving to be difficult, as she thought of the million different ways this power could be used.

As a precaution, Shinji's parents had told them under no circumstances were they to tell anyone else about this ability. They had been clever enough to understand that nations from across the world would easily abuse this power, so keeping their mouth shut was of the utmost priority.

She glanced quickly at the bracelet on her left wrist. It's design looked almost futuristic, a deep crimson color with splashes of red decorated its design. Shinji wore an identical bracelet, although his was a mix of white and blue, complimented with the odd splash of black. These bracelets were designed to give them immediate access to their powers, without having to go back to the room. She wasn't quite sure how it worked, but it was apparently linked to the room in some way, enabling them to summon objects, or change their environment around them at will. And the most frustrating thing about the bracelets was that neither Gendo nor Yui had said a damn thing about how to activate them.

As Asuka cursed the two mad scientists, the door to the class slid open, revealing Misato looking cheerful.

"Good morning, my fellow nutcases. I have some good news for most of you and some bad news for two of you in particular."

"This'll be what she was so excited about this morning." Asuka thought as she recalled their guardian giggling like a drunk schoolgirl whilst they had all been eating breakfast together this morning. It had been in equal parts curious and terrifying. Try as they might, neither she nor Shinji could extract any useful information out of her.

"I have the pleasure of introducing a new transfer student to everyone today. Please treat her kindly everyone! Miss Ayanami, you may enter."

At her words, a young girl with eye-catching light-blue hair walked into the classroom. As she turned to face the class, Asuka noticed her eyes were a bright, slightly-unnerving crimson. But more importantly, she noticed that the transfer student bore a startling resemblance to Shinji's mother. And on top of that, she was incredibly cute.

"I swear to god, if I catch Shinji staring at her, I'm going to..." Asuka muttered as she turned around to look at Shinji. She wasn't expecting his expression to be laced with shock and horror in equal measure. As she wondered what had him so scared, the transfer student began to speak.

"My name is Rei Ayanami, its a pleasure to meet you." She did a small bow, and as she looked up again, Asuka noticed her flash a smile in Shinji's direction. Whipping her head back, she saw that Shinji's expression had grown a hundred times more petrified looking.

"And be careful boys, she's technically already spoken for!" Misato piped up from her chair near the window. All of the boys looked at her, both horrified and confused at the same time. Winking at Rei, she nodded towards her.

"It's time to reveal the biggest news of all." It sounded like Misato was having a hard time containing her excitement. Rei nodded, suddenly looking bashful and shy, began to walk towards the centre of the class, specifically to Shinji's chair. After having reached her destination, she smiled at him.

"It is good to see you after all this time, Shinji. Here, this is for you." She placed a small box in front of him, a very familiar-looking box.

"What on god's green earth is in that box Shinji." Asuka whispered, dreading the answer she knew was most likely coming. Shinji stared at the box, paralyzed in fear. This couldn't be happening. He had thought this whole thing had been forgotten about years ago.

He picked up the box with trembling hands. The whole class waited on baited breath, the atmosphere was electric, to an almost lethal degree. He gently prised open the box, confirming his worst fears. Sitting snugly inside the box were two, sparkling engagement rings.

The whole class erupted into pandemonium.

"...what?" Asuka looked mental, with one eye stretched far wider than it should have been able to, a demonic grin danced across her face. "WHAT? WHAAAT!?"

"SHINJI, YOU BASTARD!" Toji Suzuhara, his supposed best friend and pillar of support during most of their hard times together, looked about ready to punch him square in the face.

"THE HELL IS ALL THIS ABOUT!? You've already chummy with the hottest girl in the school, where the fuck are engagement rings coming from!? With this new chick!?"

"Suzuhara, language!"

"Shove it Class Prez! This is a national emergency!" His retort ignited a blazing fire under the temper of their class president, Hikari Horaki. Her face matched Asuka's current expression in terms of pure terror, immediately rushing to Toji and grasping his ear with the strength of an enraged lion.

"Would you like to repeat that, Suzuhara?"

Meanwhile, Shinji had about five seconds to live, as his situation changed for the worse when Rei suddenly put his arms around him. A pure explosion of rage erupted from Asuka, as her table went flying across the room.

"WHAT ARE YOU DONIG TO HIM!?" She was barely stopping herself from launching at the blue-haired girl, who looked back at her, confused by Asuka's rage.

"I'm simply hugging him. It's been at least six years since I last saw my childhood friend, and it's time for our promise to be fulfilled."

"What. Fucking. Promise?" Asuka aimed the icy question at both Shinji and Rei. "I'm pretty sure I've just crapped myself..." Shinji moaned as the two girls continued to glare at each other.

"IKARI, SORYU, LANGUAGE!" Hikari roared from behind him, still wrestling with Toji.

"His father promised my father that we would be engaged to marry when we both came to the right age. It has been a long time coming, but I have been waiting for this day to finally reunite with Shinji, for a long time." Rei glanced down at the terrified boy, a small blush creeping onto her face.

"But... why...?" Asuka's rage could be heard between every whispered syllable. "Why him?"

A moment's silence passed, as Rei thought about her response. She looked up, a firm determination present in her eyes.

"Without Shinji Ikari, I would not be alive today."

The silence returned, echoing around the classroom. Rei stood up, letting Shinji go.

"I was saved from a debilitating illness, not by medicine, nor by the magic of modern day science, but through the kindness that Shinji brought to me, everyday I sat in a lonely medical ward."

"For most of my life, I had been alone. I hadn't had any real friends, nor was my father around often, due to his job. My mother passed away at a young age, and I was too shy to make any friends of my own. Then, due to unfortunate circumstances, I found myself waking up in a medical ward at NERV, where my father worked. I was told that it would take a miracle to save me from my illness."

"It was then I first met Shinji. His parents both worked at NERV, and his father, who is my father's cousin, had brought him to work one day, to show him some of the experiments that were going on. By mistake, Shinji got lost and ended up in my room. And instead of leaving, he stayed with me and chatted with me. We stayed there for hours until his parents eventually discovered him."

"I begged him to stay, and through various circumstances, Shinji was allowed to visit me. Almost everyday he would come to my room, sometimes bringing games to play. And eventually, over time, my illness began to dissipate. Because of those happy days I spent with Shinji, he gave to me a miracle. The only thing I can give to him in return is my love, and everlasting matrimony."

The rest of the day passed agonizingly slowly, with Rei and Asuka butting heads with each other at every opportunity. The majority of their teachers were terrified of the spectacle, not to mention Shinji felt a constant fear of dying from a terror-induced heart attack.

The last bell ringing was heavenly music to his ears. He just wanted to go home, eat and sleep the nightmare of the day away. Catching sight of Misato walking towards him, a slightly apologetic expression on her face, he realized that his troubles were far from over.

"Shinji... How's it going?" She tried to sound as lighthearted as possible, but even she knew how tough today had been on him.

"I want to find my father and strangle him." He said, exasperated. "He told me he had 'smoothed things over' with this promise."

"Do you not like Rei?" Misato looked at him quizzically. He shook his head.

"It's not that. It just came out of nowhere, that's all. All these years, I wasn't too worried about it, because I thought Rei saw me as a friend, and nothing else. But then she transfer into my class, declares her love and dedication and I feel like somebody's thrown a metaphorical brick in my face. It's all too sudden, I don't know what's going on..."

Misato nodded sympathetically, ruffling his hair. "I understand kiddo. Love's never an easy battle to fight, especially when you've got a pretty thing like Asuka hanging around day and night. But things will get better."

Her smile quickly turned into a look of panic as she realized something.

"Actually, wait, scratch that, things are going to get a whole lot worse!" Looking up at her, his own face now in a panic, he trembled at the thought of more bad news involving the girls.

"I totally forgot to mention that Rei's moving in with us!"

After that, he was instructed to explain the news to Asuka. Misato offered him a stab/bulletproof vest she had for 'reasons'. Politely refusing, he made his way to where she thought she might be. Discovering her in their homeroom classroom, sitting on his desk, swinging her legs as she looked outside, she turned to face him as he walked in. Noticing his grim expression, her own face dropped into a dark scowl.

"Oh god... what now?"

After he quickly explained, he could have sworn the classroom had literally exploded with her fury.

* * *

They had entered the park that was on the way home. Asuka stomped ahead of him, fuming. She was that angry that he could literally feel the burning aura radiating from her. He hadn't felt this scared of her since when they were kids, back when he had been much more shy.

"Asuka..." He gently tried to talk to her, but his response was a dangerous sounding growl. His shoulders slumped as he mumbled towards her back.

"I'm sorry..."

Time froze. Along with Asuka's footsteps, and the world around them seemed to quieten. It sounded like a normal thing to say, but Asuka's response was a small sob. It was the most heartbreaking sound he could have heard from her. The invincible Asuka, the girl who never backed down. The girl that every single male at their school was attracted to, yet equally terrified of, was quietly sobbing in front of him.

"Wha- Asuka!?" He rushed up to her side, and caught a glimpse of her face. Crystal tears swept down her face as she stood there, trying to no avail to rub her eyes, attempting to stem the flow.

"Shinji... stop, don't... don't look at me..."

"Why are you crying Asuka? I'm sorry! If its something I said, I'm sorry!" He hadn't apologized to her like this since they were kids. Back then, she had yelled at him for apologizing all the time, threatening to punch him in the face if he kept on at it. He tried to curb his use of apologies since then, but he couldn't help it. Not when his best friend in the world, the girl who had stood by him through all hell, was crying his eyes out in front of him.

"Asuka..."

"She's... she's going to take you away from me!" She was talking about what had happened with Rei. "I've known you since god knows when, yet she swoops in out of nowhere, flashes her rings as though she's showing the world your shackles and... and... GRRAAHHH!" Screams echoed around the park as Asuka yelled towards the heavens, as though she was cursing the gods themselves.

"No!" After breathing heavily for a few moments, she clenched her fists and whirled to face Shinji head-on. Her eyelashes sparkled with moisture as she glared at him. Her gaze was so fierce, he took a step back, cowering slightly.

"I'm... sorry" His voice trembled. Realizing that she was probably frightening him, she rolled her eyes and walked over to him.

"I'm not letting her do as she pleases." Asuka looked away, embarrassed as she mumbled. "But with this, I hope you finally understand how I feel. I was hoping for a more romantic confession, but these things are never easy when you're involved."

It was his turn to feel embarrassed. Looking at his shoes, he suddenly felt an unexplained sense of guilt.

"I'm sorry..."

"Argh..." Asuka rolled her eyes again. "If you apologize to me one more time, I'm going to kiss you. And for every time you do it afterwards, I'm going to kiss you again. I don't care if we're in public, at school, or whatever, but I am sick of you saying sorry every five minutes. If this is the only way to shut up your incessant apologies, save using a ball gag, dammit I'll do it!" Asuka's beautiful, cerulean eyes dared him to argue. He was swept away by his pounding heart, and before his brain had any sort of chance to recover, his mouth began moving on its own.

"I'm... sorry?" Meant more as a question to her confounding statement than anything else, he clapped his hand over his mouth. But the damage had already been done.

Asuka's eyes widened in shock. But it was quickly replaced by a mischievous grin.

"That... was on purpose, wasn't it?"

All he could do was open and close his mouth, gaping like a fish. He felt like his doom was imminent. To whatever gods would listen to his prayer, he wished that he would survive to at least be able to eat some katsu curry, one last time.

Asuka began to close in slowly, standing on her tiptoes, her grin getting wider and wider as the tip of her nose brushed against the tip of his own. Her arms wrapped around his neck as her face flared with a crimson blush. A fiery determination exploded in her eyes, in which Shinji was now throughly lost in. "Just this once... I'll let it slide." She whispered, her eyes never once leaving his own. One of her hands began to ruffle with his hair as she continued to whisper.

"Ich liebe dich... dumm Shinji." And with that, her gentle lips pressed against his own, knocking out all of his senses, save for the touch of her lips and the sense of utter euphoria as they stood in the streetlit park, embracing each other to the sound of the chirping cicadas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11762238/3/Angel
> 
> Check out my Facebook Page for Updates!  
> https://www.facebook.com/tailofthedevil


	4. Shinji has a thing for Summoners!

At some point on the way home, it had started raining. Prepared as usual, Shinji fished out the compact umbrella from his bag. As soon as he had the thing unfolded, Asuka had her arm around his waist, her gaze determinedly looking the other way, for fear of her fire-red face glowing like a beacon in the night being discovered.

"Say one embarrassing word or anything and I'll be explaining to Misato why you suddenly have hundreds of bruises." She tried to sound as defensive as possible, but Shinji simply chuckled, beginning the wet but cozy walk home.

After a few minutes, she had begun to regret her fierce words. Looking at Shinji's arm dangling, she began to wish one of them was wrapped around her shoulders. She leaned in a little closer, attempting to nudge her intentions into him, but his usual obliviousness was preventing her 'Hold me!' signals from reaching his brain.

'I'm beginning to wonder who's the bigger moron...' She thought as she intentionally knocked her hand against his.

Shinji, on the other hand, was facing a dilemma. Her words could be taken seriously, knowing how Asuka used to be in the past. But this new, forward Asuka was a somewhat new creature to him. He had no idea how to react.

A while ago, Hikari had told him something very important.

"For us girls, and especially a girl like Asuka, who's never really honest about her feelings, never listen to what they're saying. Try to listen to the real words underneath, what they're actually trying to say."

He'd read enough manga to know that going straight in with that advice was practically suicide. Because it was Asuka, touching her carelessly would result in the offending limb being torn off.

But if she was already touching him, with her arm wrapped around his waist, holding tight as though to suck all his body warmth from the point of contact, what were the rules then?

With his umbrella in his right hand, he slowly sneaked his hand around to her shoulder, trembling just above it. The ever perceptive Asuka instantly knew what was going on. Her heartbeat sky-rocketed, not quite believing the normally shy Shinji would try something so daring. With baited breath, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. If she said anything, that fragile courage would be shattered. For the first time in a long time, she had to summon every ounce of patience she could muster.

After what seemed like a monumental struggle, she felt his soft touch as he clasped her shoulder gently. A warm smile enveloped her face as she leaned her head into him.

"I'm not that scary, am I?"

Shinji grinned as he held her tighter.

"Not anymore."

Standing outside the Katsuragi residence, the time had come for them to finally let go. Reluctantly, the two separated and rode the elevator to their floor. Suddenly, they were standing outside their front door.

Taking a deep breath, Asuka gathered her thoughts. Starting today, she was living with Rei Ayanami. She was living with a potential rival in love. She had to be prepared for anything.

As she opened her eyes, the front door had begun sliding open. In a heartbeat, a slim, pale white arm had reached out and dragged Shinji inside, screaming. The door slammed shut, audibly locking.

Asuka took another deep breath, this time attempting to quell the volcano of rage broiling inside her. A quick analysis of the situation told her one thing. Her romantic interest was now locked in a house with a prospective fiancée, who according to the various noises, was probably molesting him. The volcano erupted as she rammed the door with all her might, attempting to break it down. But as strong as her rage was, she wasn't quite physically strong enough to break down the door.

"Open this fucking door Ayanami!"

Her response was more of Shinji's wailing, serving to fuel her rage even further. She punched the door, kicked it, shoulder-barged it and screamed at it. Resting her head against its metal frame, she began thinking frantically.

"Come on genius. How can we get in there?!" More sounds of struggling could be heard and Shinji's startled voice echoed from what sounded like the middle room.

"Rei?! That's my belt, put it back!"

Asuka's eyes sparkled with reignited fury, a million degrees hotter than before. Her only thought was saving Shinji as she brought her fist up again, preparing to hit the door as hard as she could.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY SHINJI!" The bracelet sparkled a furious red, as bright as her fury. Her fist connected with the door. Unnoticed in her rage, her arm had covered itself with a bright red metallic armour, which she used to smash the door off the frame of the wall. Debris and dust exploded everywhere. When the dust settled, a terrifying image of Asuka faded into view.

On the floor of the living room, a petrified looking Shinji was caught underneath Rei, who was in the middle of removing his shirt.

"Katsuragi-sensei will not be too happy with that."

"I don't give a flying fuck about the damn door right now." Asuka snarled. Rei looked back with an emotionless stare, and finally let go of Shinji, who looked close to passing out.

"So it appears the experiment was a success." Her eyes glanced towards Asuka's arm, still covered in the almost feral armour. Following her eyes, Asuka too noticed the strange development with her arm, and her anger was suddenly replaced with surprise and curiosity.

"Wait, what? What is this thing?!"

"Moreover, it's just like you to conjure something so beastly in appearance." Rei said as she held out her own arm. A similar looking bracelet to the ones Shinji and Asuka wore adorned her arm, except it was a perfect white colour. Closing her eyes, Rei went silent. After a moment, a similar armour appeared on her arm, in similar fashion to Asuka's. It looked a lot less scary than Asuka's arm, with a more elegant touch to its appearance.

"And what are you going to do with that?" Bringing her own weaponised arm into a fighting stance, Asuka prepared, come whatever madness may. Rei completely ignored her however, and turned towards Shinji.

"My ones prettier, don't you think?"

Shinji could only look between the two girls, dumbfounded. Was it a serious question? Was there going to be repurcussions if he said he did indeed think Rei's arm-armour thing was a little less scary than Asuka's? Probably, but he was thankfully saved from asking by the sound of a heavy six-pack of Yebisu dropping to the ground. The owner of the beer was currently looking at her front door, aghast.

"Does someone want to explain what happened here?" Misato eyed the three students, as well as the peculiar weapons attached to the girl's arms.

"We were just...-" Her excuses tumbled over each other inside her mouth, but before Asuka could get a decent word out, Rei spoke up.

"I was instructed by Yui Ikari to perform an experiment involving the bracelets. And before anything else, I believe it's my duty to clean up the mess of my... Subjects." Something like a smile curled across Rei's lips as she reformed her armour back into a bracelet. Holding her arm out again, she closed her eyes. Sparks and mystical lights began to flow around the room as the debris from the earlier incident began to lift and return to the wall. It was like watching an explosion happening in reverse.

Asuka watched the spectacle relieved that her outburst hadn't caused any permanent damage, but couldn't help feel a little antagonistic towards Rei. The girl had been playing them both the second they'd returned home. How was she expected to live with a girl who was clearly going to mess with her head.

"An experiment?" Shinji suddenly remembered how to use his voice. "Are you going to show us how to actually use this things? And wait, how are you involved with my parents?"

"Actually, I can answer that one." After placing her slightly dented beers in the refrigerator, taking one out for herself, she sat down on the sofa.

"Was it about a week ago? Something like that-" One quick swig of beer and then she continued. "So about a week ago, Yui came up to me and said, 'Misato', in that voice that tells me she's going to ask for something huge. Anyway, 'Misato, would you be able to do me a huge favour, and take care of one of my distant relatives for a while?'. Of course, along with Kyoko, we're sort of all in this together, so I can't exactly refuse her."

At the mention of her mother, Asuka perked up. It wasn't often she got to hear of her ever-busy parent, but as much as she would never admit it, she was a mommy's girl and wanted to spend more time with her. As a result of this deity-creating experiment, the Ikari's and her mother had spent so much time locked in their labs that she was begin to seriously worry about her mothers health. She was never really the type to take care of herself, and seemed to be constantly bumping into things. For all she knew, her ditzy mother probably forgot how to sleep.

"Wait, we're related?" Shinji asked curiously. He had met Rei as a child, and they had played together a lot as children, but leaving talks of marriage aside, this was the first he had heard of a blood relation. He'd always assumed her parents were business partners to his parents or something.

"Even I'm not really sure of the relationship, but something like very distant cousins?" Rei sounded just as curious as he was. Misato grinned at the pair of them.

"Nothing to worry about, a marriage between the two of you would be perfectly okay. Well, apart from the childhood friend having her say." She knocked back her head and laughed, downing the rest of her beer.

"Which isn't happening by the way." Asuka growled. Her lack of a say in this marriage arrangement was infuriating, but she'd be damned if she was going to let any of it go ahead.

"Are we declaring war?" Misato teased. The Asuka she knew was stubborn and wasn't about to place herself into a situation that may potentially embarrass her. But her jaw hung itself open as she watched the spirited yet flushed redhead link arms with Shinji, who looked close to having his own personal meltdown, and force herself to present a victorious grin.

"If she's come to challenge my territory that I've had claimed for over ten years, she can forget it." She looked up to the boy she had known her entire life, his eyes as wide as peaches.

"He's mine."

In a flash, Rei was hanging off his other arm, glaring at her competition. Stuck in the middle, Shinji suddenly thought of all the things he still had to do in life. With the way things were going, he was never going to get laid before Asuka killed him. He had been thinking of trying his hand at becoming a mangaka, but his characters and ideas were tearfully waving goodbye to him as the grim reaper came to introduce himself. He should've wrote a will at some point...

"This little drama is great to watch and all, definitely beats anything on TV these days, but can we pause this and resume that conversation about 'experiments' and freaky bracelets?" The rarely seen responsible Misato made her appearance, with the best intentions.

But Rei had other ideas.

"This might be a good idea to show what I've learned."

Her bracelet glowed once more. A length of thin, sturdy rope was conjured out of thin air. It rapidly wrapped itself around Shinji, pinning his arms to his side. Another rope did the same to Asuka, although her arms were restrained behind her, preventing her from moving.

"If you can't use the weapons available, you won't be able to win this battle." Rei said, a victorious smile playing across her face.

"I'm too young for BDSM, can't we just talk about this Rei?!" Shinji wailed in the middle. Asuka was struggling against the rope digging into her arms, infuriated from the brazenness shown by the red-eyed man-thief. She was still surprised at how real the ropes felt, for something that was essentially created from nothing.

"I thought the whole reason you were here was to show us how to use these damn bracelets?!" Her mind raced as she tried to remember how the technology worked.

Breaking down the door, she had wanted something strong, something that could compensate for her lack of strength. It didn't even matter what shape, but it morphed into a powerful arm. Her subconscious might've filled in the blanks, but she essentially imagined something strong. Just like in the room in the lab, Shinji had to imagine the cat into existence. With that in mind...

"Heh..." An evil grin played on her face.

"I don't like that face your making Asuka... " Shinji knew her various expressions well enough by now to know that her counterattack was imminent and would somehow be painful for him.

"It appears you weren't necessary after all Ayanami." Straining her muscles, stretching the rope, and eventually the rope restraining Asuka came free. Part of the rope tying her hands had been charred black as she had burned through them by imagining flame surrounding her hands. The power even ensured she hadn't felt the burn of the flame either.

"You just need an open mind."

"Oh I see!" It looked like Shinji had come to the same conclusion. Closing his eyes, he imagined a flame burning the ropes at the contact point of his body. Within seconds, and accompanied by a whooshing flame sound, the ropes fell to his feet, severed and charred.

"Ow!" He'd apparently forgotten that fire burns though, neglecting to protect himself as Asuka had done.

"Instead of explaining everything, it's easier to show you. And it will be easier to remember in the future too." Rei made no move to suggest any further antagonistic moves would follow.

"Teaching like a normal person isn't bad once in a while though."

"I agree with him. You better not become a schoolteacher someday, you might end up killing someone." Asuka sighed. But now she knew how the bracelet worked, she wanted to try something out. Holding out her hand, she closed her eyes and began to exercise her imagination.

Within a few moments, a bottle of Ramane appeared.

"Oh sweet, things like this can be summoned too!" She popped off the top and began to drink. It tasted the same as any other she had drunk in the past.

"Does that count as stealing?" Shinji looked sheepishly at her as she finished the whole bottle off.

"Does this mean I never have to buy beer anymore?!" Misato jumped up excitedly. She sat down despondently when Rei began to shake her head.

"There's still a lot we don't know yet, but because beer is something we haven't tried yet, we wouldn't be able to summon something we don't know the taste of. There's no record of it in our subconscious memory."

"Asuka, I'm willing to turn a blind eye as a teacher and a legal guardian this once, you can have one of my Yebisu, so please-..." Misato stopped short when she noticed Asuka was already holding a can of Yebisu. There was no trace of guilt in her face, not in the slightest. If anything, a sly smile was shining through.

"Asuka, we're minors..." Shinji sighed again. He felt like he'd be doing it a lot more in the future to come.

"Try telling that to my mom. She takes a very German approach to these things." Asuka chuckled as she threw the beer to Misato.

"It's even got the right temperature! It's ice cold!" Instantly popping the tab, Misato's grin looked ready to jump off her face. "Don't mind if I do!"

"You're not going to even try to correct all the wrong in this situation?" Shinji mumbled as he watched Misato down the beer in one go.

"Why? If I do that, I might stop getting free beer! And nothing in life tastes better than free beer!"

Shaking his head, Shinji thought to his own bracelet. If it worked by exercising his imagination, he wanted to try it with something that didn't exist in the real world. Holding out his hand, he mimicked Asuka's earlier actions and closed his eyes. He focuses hard, and within seconds, felt a heavy object in his hand.

"Someone's been playing too much Final Fantasy lately."

An oddly shaped watery-blue sword was in his hands. It looked identical to the one he had been using in the game he had been playing with Asuka a few days before they had gone to the lab.

"You were playing it with me!"

"That's true." In Asuka's hands was a long staff with a blue handle, with a golden head that incorporated an interesting design. "Woah... If I did any cosplay, this would save so much money on the outfits!"

"You have the power of imagination at your disposal and you're using it for... Cosplay?" Rei sounded out her disbelief.

"Oh come on! Haven't you ever wanted to be like your favourite character from a story or something? This is awesome!" Asuka glanced at Shinji. "Let's go the whole way!"

Asuka's whole body was quickly enveloped in red light. After a few moments, she was wearing a kimono-esque outfit, a blue flowing dress with a backless white design covering her top-half. Just like...

"Yuna! You look just like her!" Shinji could only stare at the immaculately detailed recreation of his arguably favourite character from the game series. Something that he suspected she had done on purpose.

"It appears I'm going to have to start playing more games with you Shinji." Rei smiled at him. Asuka smirked whilst pointing the staff at her.

"That's right, I know all of Shinji's favourite characters, his likes, dislikes and what buttons to press with him. You're not stealing him away, no matter what you do!"

Rei returned the smirk, folding her arms and taking a defiant posture.

"We shall see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also available here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11762238/4/Angel
> 
> Check out my Facebook Page for Updates!  
> https://www.facebook.com/tailofthedevil

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the Shinji Ikari Raising Project spinoff manga.
> 
> Also available here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11762238/1/Angel
> 
> Support the Words: https://www.patreon.com/tailofthedevil


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